What to do to a fellow applicant's fake profile?

Question

Hi!

What should you do if you know for a fact that someone applying for top MBA programs has egregiously faked his/her resume (e.g. five months at your firm but says 3 years and with a title two ranks higher)?

I understand business schools do background check (although this person has been known to have somehow successfully passed a company's background check with that fake profile) but that won't happen until after being admitted wouldn't it be unfair someone honest should get that chance for interview? Is there any protocol from business schools for these situations?

Thanks!

Nikhil · Answer

I am not sure if there is any specific protocol to be followed but I think the easiest way is to reach out to the admissions(maybe schedule a call with them?) about this and report it. You can request the admissions committee to keep your details anonymous. Please double-check and make sure of the information you are reporting.

There have been cases where fake applicants successfully got through the background checks and the business school had to rescind the degrees only after a few years from graduation. So business schools will definitely appreciate it if they can catch the fake applicants early in the process

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

As stated earlier, the most one can do is to report the profile and submit any evidence one have from the employer if been asked to prove the statement validation.

Posted from my mobile device

CJinthehouse · Answer

Thank you!

bb · Answer

Interesting topic and thanks for the question! 1. It is a tricky business because while you are reporting a "fake candidate" how does the school know you are not faking it? What if you had a fight with this person and just now trying to hurt them? It is important to state your motivation/motive for reaching out. 2. You may need to establish your credibility somehow and that means potentially disclosing your identity. Knowing how bad schools are with clandestine things, I would probably not volunteer too much information in case they bongle it and accentally notify the applicpant. You have to consider what happens if this leaks 3. Schools are risk-averse and may not want to engage much besides a quick "Thank you" and instead just hangs on to the evidence and passes it on to the background check company in case they admit this person 4. It is a lot trickier if you are applying to the same school... are you applying?

P.S. It is unfortunately not very uncommon to have "people" who just make stuff up and sometimes it flies. One of the moderators on GMAT Club notified me a few years ago that one of the applicants he talked to was actually inventing his own non-profit that was purely on paper to create a visibility of work and participation but there was none. He was manufacturing volunteer experience and accomplishments.... Thankfully that person did not get in but it was a challenge that we had with reporting them and how to do it. It is not very clear.... there does not seem to be a very straightforward process... and it makes it a lot more awkward when you are applying to the same school (this was the case with the moderator and his fellow unethical applicant)

bb · Answer

This is one of the reasons there are waitlists - in case people do not accept the offer or there is an issue that disqualifies them. It is rare to be disqualified however and rare for the background check companies to deny candidates. Background checks are more of a formality to deter folks from trying to manufacture identities and experiences but they are not designed to be the FBI and investigate everyone so there is a good chance that the review may come up saying 1 year vs. 3 years is OK (by the time the background check happens, it will be longer work experience). Also titles may be confusing and the researcher at Revera may just give up and say, this is good enough. They clearly worked there. The title somewhat matches, screw it, OK. They may not, it really depends.

So the person won't take up an interview slot even though they may. Depends on how you look at it.

So the person won't take up an interview slot even though they may. Depends on how you look at it.

CJinthehouse · Answer

Thanks for the response! I have the same concerns which is why I don't know if I should reach out to the schools. We have overlap in at least one school application and I don't know if it might look bad on me if I reach out to the school. 
This person's fabrications are notorious though among not just my coworkers but also the small professional community we're in. I have work group chat history ranging from different times (between 2016 to 2020) where my coworkers were discussing about this person's fake resumes/profiles and what new things we heard about this person. I even have a current coworker who came from a company that person went after my firm and who told us even more shocking things about this person. 
This person's blocked almost all my coworkers (not the new people) from LinkedIn initially, then something must have happened because he/she changed to another LinkedIn profile. Not so long ago, we noticed that this person now only uses only initials instead of a full name. Based on the LinkedIn profile, almost all this person's work experiences are fake or inaccurate. 
I'm still torn about whether to do something about it or not.

bb · Answer

I totally understand and I can relate. We were torn about reporting the other applicant and his fake nonprofit to the schools. However, we did not know for sure that this person had used that fake nonprofit in their application. After much debate, we decided to wait and see. The applicant did not get any interview invitations so that made the point moot.

I think the best option would be to ask a friendly admissions director for advice. Potentially from a different program even but just to get a sense as to how admissions perceives this type of situation. Do they welcome feedback, do they treated very cautiously or do they discourage it....

Let me try doing some research. It may take a couple of days but let me see if I can entice one of the admissions folks to share their thoughts on this... They likely have more experience with these situations.

Posted from my mobile device

CJinthehouse · Answer

Thank you very much!

bb · Answer

I can also see creating a burner Gmail account and letting the admissions deal with this dilemma

I think in either case, I probably would not report the person using my real name if you were applying to the same school. That would make things a bit awkward.... Like in politics, when one candidate makes a case against the other candidate, it is not a strong woman neutral person who has nothing to gain comes out with some allegations. It’s a stronger case with a neutral party makes a statement. Also since there are not many presidents of this, noon and out in the open, you want to protect yourself... and hopefully the lies will reveal themselves by screwing up the application somehow. 😊 Posted from my mobile device

souvik101990 · Answer

This might sound a little Forrest-Gump-y, but I'd let it slide. For many reasons including the fact that this will keep on happening. Today it is business school admissions, next it will be interviews at different companies recruiting for MBAs, and then there will be promotions at work. We often run into people who exaggerate and downright lie in their resume/applications or achievements in order to get what they want. You can stop this one but you cannot stop them all.

I understand it is a lot more difficult if you and/or had a personal interaction with this person where their lies became a lot clearer, but I would let the business schools handle their admission process including how they choose to do their background checks. It is especially sensitive if you are applying to the same school and you do not want the spotlight for any other reason than your own personal and professional awesomeness.

Curious what you choose to end up doing. This is an interesting issue and I'd like to see how the schools respond should you choose to report.

pemathew · Answer

i am curious to how the admissions team responds ?

bb · Answer

Probably won’t hear till Tue. Just setting expectations....

Posted from my mobile device

Businessconquerer · Answer

This one's an interesting one.

I remember asking one of my clients how it feels to see people go to top schools and doing the stuff you just said.

He was in the same kind of mindset.
Obviously, just to look good, he replied, "their experiences are theirs and my experience is mine and I have no incentive to be bothered".
To which I told him, "If it didn't bother you, you'd not talk about it."

I know for a fact thatsuxh cases are true and for the record if I started dissecting each Application for facts, there would be no students in Business school.
Taking it up a notch, I know how the pitch competition works as I've seen many and if I dissect them for facts, their funding can be taken back.

Business school Application process is the job of the admissions committee and it is up to them to find out a suitable candidate. I always argue on the front of discrimination against Indian tech Males but hey!!! They want who they want, right?

I'll tell you on of mine as well. I operate a lot of secondary businesses, Consulting with Business Conquerer is one of them. I didn't mention that in my application. I only mentioned my primary work experience. Is that deception? Nope! They want the primary work experience, and that is all I filled.
I even operate in my brother's company. I operate in my family's real estate company. Didn't mention either. Bcoz business schools ask for post bachelor's full time experience. I feel it's unfair to me that they'd not consider my life's experiences but it's their decision on who they want.

This person may be faking it to make it but then again so do many others- even you if I dissect the resume and application to its core.
I know you think it's unfair to see this happen but trust me the application process isn't fair anyways. If Ellen DeGeneres applied, she'd get in with no experience in your sector at all lol. I know that is unfair but it's them. And that's what I tell myself, 'their school, their rules'.

I'd rather let it slide coz you'll meet a lot of people in these schools who exaggerate and over state to make it in. But I'd say if you're going to plead for fairness, do tell them to stop putting pressure on Indian male applicants to score above 750 (in majority) to get a top 10 school. Others barely score and make it in.😂😂. Also, doesn't this person have a GMAT? I don't think that GMAT could be faked.

Also, another way of looking at it- there are more than 250 seats in all the top schools, you only need one. So, have faith in yourself. Let her do what she wants, she's just as bad an applicant as any.
 souvik101990  is right here.

But this was an interesting thread though.

Posted from my mobile device

CJinthehouse · Answer

Thank you! A little update. I heard this person's got very a low GMAT score, so I'm leaning toward not reporting and just wait and see. On the other hand, it would be even more disturbing if the fake work experience is going to carry this person through in spite of the low GMAT...

Please do let me know if you hear any advice from the admission people. I talked to some alumni and to my shock, they don't seem to encourage me to report (I thought they'd be more protective of the their schools) and one alumus even told me matter-of-factly that every year, someone they know with a fabricated profile would end up in a M7 school. They all seem to think that I should wait and see.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Don't worry about the profile for a top 15 if the GMAT score is low, she will not make it in anyways.

About the second paragraph shock. There are tons of reasons why they discourage you from a head on conflict. Firstly, if you have lived in the world and I am assuming you have, there are falsifiable evidence, internal network and many other insider trading like jobs involved. Just by saying that it is illegal or filing a complaint will never work. Basically, I will give you the perspective of a businessman here. Business is about making allies with a leverage over them so that they don't betray you. It is different from blackmail, it is a contingency protocol Basically, almost every top Businessman has done something illegal (Allegedly) but the thing is that these people get off due to the deep pockets and their broad network, bureaucracy exists for a reason. Also, there is no sense in burning your fuel unnecessarily, because just lies are just another word for "presentability and diplomacy" Lastly, from a real options analysis, I can tell you that the scenarios you'll see even upon filing a complaint will be as follows- Adcom gets complaint, they check if there is a firm evidence (firm= confession), they'll see if this profile can be bought by the big companies, they'll see what kinds of value added are they looking at when this person is in, if the answer is in the interest of the school (Interest= money)- they'll thank you and nothing will happen except you'll lose a lot of credibility for people to be vulnerable as I said in the previous posts- people even you have lied at some point and lies are lies there is no escape from why one is better than the other. Basically, Business school is a place of a bunch of people who have literally done at least one wrong. And from the perspective of a descendant of a warrior civilization- if you're going on a war, better make sure you end up killing the enemy because an enemy with nothing to lose has all the strength in the world to take something we value from us. Now after all that wisdom- I hope you have a mindset where you can have faith in yourself than looking into another person's business

bb · Answer

So I had heard back from 2 different AdCom folks and here is what they shared (below in quotes) 
Frankly, I was not expecting much and I am frankly surprised I heard back.... at the same time, it would have been better to hear something more concrete or a recommendation (e.g.. don't do it or do this or smth along these lines). Anyway, here is what the AdCom directors had to share:

P.S. What this tells me is that they do NOT have a due process for "reporting" fake information and are not really equipped to handle situations like these. While it seems they are open, it seems it is an awkward situation for them and seems they are not encouraging contact. My take on it....

bb · Answer

So....  JaneJaneJaneJane  it sounds like they are sort of telling you, unfortunately, to focus on your application and they will be doing their best job to address this individual's attempts to circumvent the system?

CJinthehouse · Answer

Thanks for the update! Yeah I agree. It also sorta confirms our initial concerns that it might reflect badly on the person who alert them (personal beef...). As mentioned earlier I've decided to wait and see after talking to the alumni. Since this person has a below 700 GMAT, I am hoping he/she won't get into these schools anyways.

bb · Answer

That is not an automatic disqualification notice but usually folks like that make stupid mistakes on their application where things are not adding up or they say something incriminating in their interview and they freak out (even if the interviewer does not notice) but that torpedoes the interview. Lots of landmines

let us just avoid them too! P.S. I think the schools are looking for people to take the higher ground and not name call or be petty or take their grievances and talk about fairness... since things tend to be unfair in the real world anyway. I think the cost of enforcing some of these things is too high and they accept that some misstatements are going to happen... my guess is that EVERYONE exaggerates things a bit, esp the ones that can't be verified (saved $40,000,000 where in reality it may have been $31 but it was rounded up to $40)... they can't verify it anyway. So none of us are blameless either.

What to do to a fellow applicant's fake profile?

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